A Russian & accomplices Arrested for Robbing Wealthy Americans

Undercover investigators arrested 24-year old Igor Klopov, a Russian national, and four others on charges of trying to rob $7 Million off a millionaire in Texas who is also a political supporter of President Bush and is named Sam Wyly Jr. There is also accusation on all the five of committing theft of $1.5 Million from some more rich Americans.

Prosecutors charged Mr. Klopov of hiring some Americans to help him in the alleged theft of personal identities of some wealthy people belonging to Oregon, California and Texas who owned large credits of home equity.

Igor Klopov allegedly used online identities like 'topfinancegroup' and 'stayintheshadows' to steal $1.5 Million and to orchestrate the theft of another $10.7 Million from different people. Igor chose his victims from the list of Forbes 400, many of whom were based in California and Texas. In these two places, it is easy to access online information on property deed.

Klopov allegedly carried out his plan from his Moscow home and employed co-conspirators from Websites such as CareerBuilder.com and Monster.com. He also paid private investigators to furnish more information about his target victims.

The ads began by saying that many people dreamt of owning a second identity, said James Kindler, chief assistant district attorney of Manhattan. NyMetro published this in news on August 17, 2007. Those who did followed the ad received an e-mail, which confirmed that Klopov was employing people to carry out a bank fraud, Kindler said.

A team of city and federal detectives started to doubt Mr. Klopov when a person of the Identity Theft Unit at the office of the Manhattan district attorney posed as one of the accomplices of Mr. Klopov.

Investigators lured Klopov to leave Russia and come to New York where he was handcuffed on May 2007. Four more people involved in the scam were also arrested on August 16, 2007 in Michigan, Texas, Kentucky and Florida, according to the authorities.

There were several criminal charges on the defendants in New York. These included first degree money laundering and larceny that is punishable for up to 25 years of sentence.

Related article: A New "Blackmailing" Variant Creeps Around…

» SPAMfighter News - 9/1/2007